United is trying to recruit pilots early in their training as the second-biggest US carrier faces an impending shortage as half of its aviators approach retirement. The airline on Thursday said it would offer conditional job offers to candidates who apply to a special program as they build experience during their training and early-career experience at small airlines. Close to half of United’s roughly 12,500 pilots will retire over the next 10 years, the airline estimates, and it expects to need to hire 10,000 over that period to keep pace with growth. Boeing has estimates that airlines will need 645,000 pilots from 2019 through 2038, with 212,000 in North America alone. Airlines around the world are fretting about who will fly their planes in the future and are ramping up recruiting efforts. Delta Air Lines last year launched a program that invited its non-pilot employees to take unpaid leave to go to flight school and conditional job offers for college students as ranks of pilots thin due to the federally-mandated retirement age of 65. Cost is a major hurdle to becoming a pilot and training costs can top $80,000. Strict laws in the United States require that pilots have 1,500 hours of flight time to work at a commercial airline, but there are exceptions for some students and military. United is considering other initiatives such as loan forgiveness or guarantees, said Bryan Quigley, United’s senior vice president of flight operations. “One of the big barriers to get into the profession is the cost of getting their certification,” he said. Regional carriers that serve airlines’ shorter routes have had to increase bonuses to new pilots to entice applicants. <br/>
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UK aircraft lessor ACC Aviation and Ethiopian Airlines have expanded a partnership to bring the carrier's charter and wet-lease capacity to North America and Asia. Under a new agreement, Ethiopian aircraft will become available for wet-lease or charter operation from London Heathrow, Manchester, Frankfurt, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Rome Fiumicino, Milan, Moscow Domodedovo, Houston, Bangkok, Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, ACC Aviation says. Previously, Ethiopian aircraft have been wet-leased to Czech airline Smartwings and chartered for the 2018 World Cup and to cruise operators under a agreement covering the European market. ACC Aviation CE Phil Mathews states that the new agreement enables the company to "represent [Ethiopian's] interests globally". Noting Ethiopian's operation of Boeing 787s and Airbus A350s, he says the agreement will give ACC clients access to "some of the most modern widebody aircraft", which he describes as "not generally available" for ad-hoc charter and wet-lease operation. Ethiopian vice-president strategic planning Busera Awel states that the partnership with ACC Aviation has "allowed us to significantly expand our service offering within Europe and beyond".<br/>